“The truth of the matter is, we all come to prayer with a tangled mass of motives altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter. Frankly, this side of eternity we will never unravel the good from the bad, the pure from the impure. God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture. That is what grace means, and not only are we saved by it, we live by it as well. And we pray by it.”
Richard J. Foster

Spiritual life is not measured by success, it is measured by what God pours through us and that cannot be measured at all. Oswald Chambers

Prayer is considered by many, acted on in part, and believed by few. I am a praying man but I will admit that my praying life is like a roller coaster with hiccups. I often struggle for consistency and later reflect and have to ask why. If someone says to me do you believe in God, I have not the slightest hesitation in responding in the affirmative, meanwhile I face the reality of living an oxymoron type of faith. Intellectual faith isn’t really a great basis for a spiritual life, and prayer without true faith seems, at the least disingenuous, after all why am I beseeching God with some petition If I don’t actually expect some sort of response. I end up praying instead for more faith so that when I pray, it is part of a dialogue rather than a verbal monologue of perceived needs and wants.

At some point I believe the Lord will have transformed me on the inside, that my prayers will generate out of a love relationship with him and not my own narrow-minded ideas.

I haven’t asked for a Mercedes Benz or even a large sum of money, however I have stooped to asking him to remove my ear and nose hair,(read more about that here). That probably seems petty, it is, I guess my faith is strong enough to believe God accepts and loves us regardless of our short comings.

I have a lot of growing to do still…the people in my life are probably praying that will come soon. In the meantime I will continue to go to my God in all my imperfections, sit down over a cup of java and have conversations….oh and I should probably say one more thing, I have noticed that in all my shortcomings and times of little faith it really is amazing how many times I have seen him answer!

2 Responses to Like A Prayer

I both relate to the sentiment and love your turn of phrase, when you share that your prayer life resembles a roller coaster ride withj hiccups.
I think that the power and purpose of prayer is one of the “wierdest” things about God… One thing I am finding though, is that in the very act of praying for the petty ( E.G. Mercedes Benz… and thanks for getting that song stuck in my head!) I find myself grappling with some approximation of God’s view. As I ask him for this, that, and the other thing, I find myself being challenged and called out as I contemplate what it would mean for me to actually recieve whatever it is I’m asking for. I think we’re called to the terrifying task of praying for our enemies for a similiar reason; in bringing them to God in our minds, we are forced to confront their humanity and our commanalities with them.

Hey there Jeff, thanks for reading, and yeah that song is stuck in my head too now! Praying for our enemies…yes I believe you are right, it is a bit unnerving finding that your enemy has more in common with you than some of your relatives 🙂 Providing of course I’m honest enough to admit it. Thank you for the comment and stretching my thoughts.